Corey Ellis is the co-founder and CEO of Growcer, an Ottawa-based company building modular farms & food infrastructure used by communities, schools, and grocers across Canada and around the world.
We talk about the impact our food system is having on the climate and how vertical farming can help solve those problems. We also talk about lessons learned from the vertical farming hype cycle, Growcer’s $30M infrastructure fund, and building a company for the long-term.
About Corey
Corey started Growcer in 2014 with his co-founder Alida Burke after seeing firsthand how northern communities struggle with food security. What began as a social enterprise project in Nunavut grew into a mission-driven company tackling food affordability, waste, and access.
Growcer has deployed over 800 farms worldwide, acquired its US competitor Freight Farms, and launched a $30M Growcer Fund to finance climate infrastructure.
In this conversation, we cover:
7:40 - What’s broken in our food system and why boring problems like distribution and shelf life matter
11:03 - How modular farms cut food waste and fertilizer use - but aren’t a silver bullet
16:51 - How Growcer turned customer criticism into their best R&D engine
19:19 - What real food sovereignty looks like when communities own their infrastructure
24:34 - The “vertical farming” hype cycle and why most players got it wrong
39:37 - Borrowing lessons from real estate to finance climate infrastructure
50:59 - Solving hard problems and building culture from first principles
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